Fares on Manchester’s overcrowded rail routes will have rocketed by up to 43pc in less than a decade when the latest hike hits in January - despite years of delays and cancellations.

Analysis by Labour reveals that between 2010 and 2019, season tickets between Chester and Manchester will have risen by an incredible £940.

From Liverpool Lime Street to Manchester the rise is £857, an increase of 36pc, over the last nine years while tickets from Salford to Chorley have shot up £482.

The analysis comes as it was confirmed that January’s annual fare increase - which tracks inflation - could be as much as 3.2pc, prompting fury from passenger groups and condemnation from trade unions.

It also comes after months of crippling problems across the local network and more than two years of serious failures within the Northern Rail franchise. Last month the M.E.N. revealed that Manchester has the most overcrowded trains in the country.

Labour has now called for a fare freeze, pointing out that ticket prices have consistently risen far faster than average wages over the past decade.

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Opposition leader Jeremy Corbyn said: “Today’s train fare increases are an insult to everyone who has suffered from the chaos on Britain’s railways.

“The government’s shambolic mismanagement of our railways has been a national embarrassment and they must now step in to freeze fares charged on the worst performing routes.

“Labour will take back control of our railways by bringing them into public ownership so they are run in the interests of passengers, not private profit.”

This morning transport secretary Chris Grayling carried out a round of interviews in which he argued fare rises should be tracked to the lower Consumer Price Index measure of inflation in future, rather than the Retail Price Index as they are at the moment.

However in return he said rail workers should accept an equivalent pay cap, comments that prompted fury from trade unions.

Fares on Manchester’s overcrowded rail routes will have rocketed by up to 43pc in less than a decade (Image: PA)

“At best this is a distraction technique and at worse a recipe for years of industrial action,” he said, adding that rail chiefs had not been asked to take a pay cut, nor shareholders to refuse dividends.

Meanwhile Greater Manchester’s leaders pointed out most rail users in the conurbation do not actually use season tickets, so are already losing out as they do not qualify for the compensation scheme set up by government in the wake of May’s meltdown.

At the same time Northern Rail has cancelled scores of trains for three consecutive Sundays.

Deputy mayor Bev Hughes said: “After months of misery rail passengers are once again being kicked in the teeth by the government.

“Even after mass cancellations, an emergency timetable and the continuing shambles we see every Sunday, passengers are still set to be hit by these fare hikes.

“The transport secretary said earlier this year that the North’s railway and passengers were his number one priority. It is still not too late for Chris Grayling to live up to his own ambitions by freezing the fares for northern passengers.

“Right now we have a situation where the majority of Greater Manchester passengers aren’t eligible for the compensation package that’s being lauded by Ministers. It’s simply not good enough.

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Manchester trains

“The crisis on the North’s railway has not gone away, passengers are still having to put up with a shamefully sub-standard service here. A fare freeze is the least passengers deserve.”

Manchester-based think-tank IPPR North, which has repeatedly called on the government to make northern infrastructure a priority, also slammed the latest hike.

“The transport secretary expects northerners to dig deeper into their own pockets for the railways, but still refuses to do so himself by investing in the north’s infrastructure,” said senior research fellow Luke Raikes.

“Our independent analysis of government spending by region shows that more than twice as much per head in London as in the north over the last decade; planned investment is 2.6 times more per head in the capital.

“This is one of the reasons behind the ongoing rail chaos in the north. It is causing daily problems for commuters and in doing so is a drag on the economy of the region and the country.

“If the transport secretary expects northerners to pay more, he must follow through and invest in northern infrastructure as promised.”

Defending the rises, Mr Grayling said: “The point about a rail fare increase is the cost of industry rises year by year by year.

“The unions would have you believe that all the money is going to the pocket of shareholders, actually less than two pence in the pound goes to the investors who provide the private finance for the new trains.”